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RALEIGH, N.C. — This was dragged out longer than it needed to be.

The Rangers were finally eliminated Saturday after a 7-3 loss to the Hurricanes at Lenovo Center, but the team realistically lost its season in November and have been headed toward this colossal letdown for the entire 2024-25 campaign.

Facing elimination for a second game in a row was one too many.

The Blueshirts have looked like they’ve wanted to go home for weeks.

And so this slow crawl over broken glass to the finish line came to an end.

The last two games should be slightly less painful now that they won’t carry any meaning, though having to sit with the discomfort of how this tragic season unfolded will be an offseason sentence.

As the second team in franchise history and fourth team in NHL history to go from Presidents’ Trophy winners one season to missing the playoffs the next, these Rangers will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

“It’s disappointing for everybody,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “It certainly wasn’t anybody’s plan coming into the year, especially coming off of last year. Yet here we are. We had opportunities in the last 20 games to make our own noise and make our own way and we didn’t do that. It’s on us. We needed to be better.”

Was it the mistreatment of Barclay Goodrow — circumventing his no-trade list and waiving him in a prearranged deal with the Sharks — that derailed the whole season before it even started?

Or the summer drama between president and general manager Chris Drury and ex-captain Jacob Trouba that impacted the locker room?

Maybe Drury allowing Trouba to walk back in was the first mistake.

Maybe there was more retooling that should’ve been done in the offseason.

Perhaps Drury’s league-wide trade memo eliciting trade partners and asserting that Trouba and Chris Kreider were specifically available — which preceded a damning 4-13 stretch — was the start of their downfall.

Several marquee players taking major steps back and failing to show up consistently is no doubt to blame, as is the dysfunction within the system that made a core that had been playing together for years look like strangers.

There was a lack of investment from those who matter most, a perpetual state of underachieving from those who could make a difference.

“It sucks,” said Mika Zibanejad, who is primed to finish with his lowest point total in an 82-game season since his second season in New York in 2017-18. “I think, obviously, this game wasn’t the problem. … It’s going to take a bit to digest what just happened.”

Leah Hextall reported on ESPN that the Rangers bench was “church-like” during the game and Laviolette hadn’t said more than two words.

That checks out, considering the writing has essentially been on the wall for the second-year coach since December.

Much like this season in general, this game was over early.

After all, the Rangers have not won a game all season after trailing by two goals.

It was a 2-0 game by the 17:46 mark of the first period, when the Rangers got caught chasing the Hurricanes around the zone before Sebastian Aho fed Seth Jarvis in front to double their score.

With Carolina continuing to swarm around the Rangers net, Jackson Blake knocked in a loose puck on the doorstep to push his team’s lead to three.

Left all alone in front of the Rangers net nearly 11 minutes later, Mark Jankowksi buried one right over Igor Shesterkin’s shoulder for the 4-0 lead.

After Jordan Staal gave Carolina a 5-1 lead, that’s when the Rangers made their push.

A power-play goal from J.T. Miller and Adam Fox’s 10th of the season in just under three minutes cut the Blueshirts’ deficit to two, but they couldn’t cash in on the subsequent power play they received for Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour’s failed goaltender interference challenge on Fox’s tally.

“Even tonight, we didn’t do the right things well enough to be successful,” Laviolette said. “We give up three goals point blank in front of our net. Can’t happen. It’s been pretty consistent all year, we just haven’t played well enough to win hockey games. That’s what makes it frustrating and disappointing.

“I believe that this team is good enough to win hockey games, good enough to play in the playoffs, but we’re not in it. That’s the reality of it. We didn’t do the right things. We didn’t do them enough.”

Will Cuylle hit the 20-goal milestone when he ended the Hurricanes’ shutout bid at the end of the second period.

It’s one of the few statistics to celebrate this season.

Right now, the only thing to celebrate is that there’s two meaningless games until it’s officially over.